Afghanistan Civil Society Delegation

Afghanistan Civil Society Delegation
To engage the foreign policy community in United States in a discussion about Afghanistan beyond 2014, the Center for American Progress and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America have invited three important Afghan civil society leaders - Nargis Nehan, EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy, Aziz Rafiee, Afghan Civil Society Forum, and Masood Karukhil, The Liaison Office - to the United States, where they will engage in bilateral talks in Washington and New York City.

The delegation will be participating in a Panel discussion titled "Beyond 2014 – Afghanistan in Transition: A discussion of reconciliation, elections, and reforms" at the Center for American Progress on February 13th, 2013. Among other things, they will address the following questions:

  • What impact will the NATO/ISAF drawdown have on security and human rights in Afghanistan?
  • What needs to be done to organize free and fair elections?
  • What is the role of civil society in the upcoming campaigns?
  • How can the international community support a continued positive transition in Afghanistan?

 

Bios:

 

Masood Karokhail:

Masood Karokhail is a founding member and now the director of The Liaison Office (TLO) in Kabul, Afghanistan. Mr. Karokhail is an expert on governance, tribal issues, and the political economy of Afghanistan and has authored and co- authored numerous articles on these subjects.

Mr. Karokhail, born in 1976 in Kabul, holds a B.A. (1998) and an MBA (1999) from Preston University in Peshawar, Pakistan, specializing in marketing. During the Taliban times, he worked in the administration section of the Afghan NGO Development & Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan (DHSA) in Pakistan and as the Afghanistan country manager for Unilever (2000-2001). From 2002 to 2003, Mr. Karokhail worked with swisspeace in setting up and running the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSF), organizing dialogue conferences and civic education outreach campaigns. In 2004 he was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn.

Nargis Nehan:

Nargis Nehan is the Executive Director and founder of EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy a nongovernmental and civil society organization advocating equal rights and access for all.

Previously, she worked with the Afghan government in senior level positions for more than 7 years since the establishment of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan. She has also worked with several nongovernmental international organizations promoting democracy at the grassroots levels. Ms. Nehan was recently appointed as the first female member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank where she is representing civil society. She is also board member of Electoral Support Organization of Afghanistan (ESOA).

Through her organization, she has been working with community based civil society groups to make communities aware of their civil rights and making them aware of roles and responsibilities of citizens especially of the opinion leaders. Ms. Nehan holds a Master’s degree in Business Management and has received international trainings in the area of peace building, conflict resolution, budgeting, gender budgeting, strategic planning and good governance.

Aziz Rafiee:

Aziz Rafiee has contributed to the Afghanistan civil society development in more than 20 years of his active work and engagement with NGOs and civil society organizations. He is one of the initiators and founding members of a dozen Afghanistan civil society organizations. Aziz Rafiee has been a strong advocate of civil society, democracy and human rights values and principles not only in national but also in international forums, meetings, seminars and conferences. He was elected, by the Afghan civil society members, to represent the Afghan civil society in the Berlin (2004) and London (2006) conferences. In 2008, he represented the Afghan civil society at the Paris donor conference.

By leading the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSFo), Aziz Rafiee led the processes of the civic education for both presidential and parliamentary elections with a nationwide outreach of 6.2 and 11 million people respectively. He is currently leading the ACSFo with more than 350 members and partners who are fully engaged in capacity building, advocacy, and rule of law programs around the country.

Aziz Rafiee was born in district one of Kabul. He g from the Faculty of Engineering of Kabul University (1981) and is an engineer by profession.